Developing loyal customer and fan relationships is becoming increasingly important to companies and individuals. For example, a movie star or producer, sports team or organization, book publisher, or celebrity may want to develop a web site as a way of distributing information to fans and of generating and maintaining fan interest.
The growth and availability of the Internet, cable and satellite television, international programming, mobile devices (e.g., cellular telephones, personal digital assistants) and media outlets have given users many sources or avenues of information regarding celebrities, teams, movies, books, sports stars, etc. (referred to herein as properties) of interest. With so many distribution points for information regarding properties, the link between the properties and the users has become blurred. For example, a user can be a die-hard supporter of the Detroit Red Wings hockey team without ever visiting Detroit, attending a hockey game, purchasing a ticket or team affiliated t-shirt, etc. By merely watching games on television, listening to the games on the radio, and reading coverage of the team on-line or in newspapers, the invisible fan is created.
Unfortunately, the property owners or managers have difficulty in recognizing users and evaluating and rewarding the users' interest, knowledge, and devotion. In addition, property owners or managers do not have a way to separate or distinguish the more loyal, knowledgeable, or devoted users from other less interested or committed users. Nor do they have the ability to recognize and reward the more loyal users based on the users' superior knowledge and affinity. Moreover, from the user's standpoint, the user is not able to demonstrate the user's level of affinity for the property in a clear and objective forum that is recognized by the property. And upon demonstrating a high affinity level for a property, users have no vehicle to separate themselves among the less devoted users who exhibit lower levels of affinity.
It would be advantageous to provide method and apparatus that overcame the drawbacks of the prior art. In particular, it would be desirable to provide methods, apparatus, means and computer code for recognizing or otherwise determining or evaluating a user's affinity for a property (e.g., sports team, television show, singer, book) and for providing a benefit to the user accordingly.